Tech transfer activity is up for three Phila. universities

The University of Pennsylvania, Drexel University and Temple University all saw their technology-transfer activity increase in the academic and fiscal year that ended June 30.

Penn still has the largest technology-transfer operation by far of the three universities, but Temple and Drexel are making strides with their tech-transfer programs.

“I think a lot of things are coming together right now where a lot of the hard work the whole region’s put in over the past 10, 15 years is really bearing fruit,” said Robert B. McGrath, the senior associate vice provost who heads Drexel’s office of technology commercialization.

The commercialization of university research has long been touted as a possible economic driver for the state of Pennsylvania in general and the region in particular.

Harnessing it, however, isn’t easy. Research discoveries, especially in the pharmaceutical field, which is one of the area’s strengths, can take many years to commercialize. Additionally, universities rarely can dictate the location of the companies to which they license their technologies, although if they decide to develop them through startups, those often wind up being located close to their campuses.

Still, the area’s confluence of medical schools and life-sciences companies means technologies can get spun out into businesses that become sizable themselves and/or get bought in sizable deals. A great example of that is Avid Radiopharmaceuticals, which used Penn technology to develop radioactive diagnostic agents and was bought in 2010 by Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co. for $300 million up front and up to $500 million in additional payments depending on the performance of its products.

That type of success story begins with research, which begins with funding, mostly from the federal government. In that department, Penn, which is a leader in grants from the National Institutes of Health, is still far ahead of Temple and Drexel.

In the year just ended, Penn received $851.3 million in research funding compared to roughly $120 million for Drexel. Temple doesn’t have the figure for the recently ended fiscal year, but garnered $136 million in research funding the year before.

The next step to getting that research to market is turning it into discoveries that researchers disclose to their institution’s technology-transfer office. Penn had a record year for it, 385 disclosures in the year just ended, according to Michael Cleare, Penn’s associate vice provost for research and the executive director of its Center for Technology Transfer.

About 65 to 70 percent of Penn’s disclosures come from its Perelman School of Medicine, Cleare said. That’s one reason the university is able to produce companies like Avid.

Penn averages six to 12 startups a year, Cleare said.

Penn also did well in the amount of income it received from technology it has already licensed. Last year, that figure was up around 40 percent from $14.7 million in fiscal 2011, which was up 40 percent from $11.4 million in fiscal 2010.

Since its research base is much smaller than Penn’s, Temple can’t produce as much commercially viable technology as Penn can.

Still, the amount it is producing is growing by leaps and bounds.

In the just-ended fiscal year, Temple received nearly $2.5 million from 24 licensing agreements with companies that are developing technology produced by its researchers. That’s more than double its licensing income in fiscal 2011.

Temple entered into eight new licensing agreements last year, up from five the year before, and started three companies. It already has started one this year and has eight deals in negotiation.

“We are probably in a position to greatly exceed the number of deals executed in the year just ended,” said Stephen Nappi, Temple’s director of technology development and commercialization.

Temple also had 51 disclosures.

Drexel was behind Temple in licensing income with about $1 million, but McGrath said that was up about 15 to 20 percent from the year before.

The university received 123 disclosures, an increase of about 25 percent over 2011.

Drexel negotiated about 15 to 20 deals to license its technologies to existing and startup companies, which is typical for it, McGrath said.